For close to one month, motorists in Nakuru have been left stranded after the USSD code used to pay parking stopped working.

Mtaa Wangu confirmed this when we tried to place a parking payment through *703#. The process moves smoothly until the paying part where the M-Pesa prompt did not show up.

John Kamau a, driver who works at highway towers says that he has also experienced the same problem and that he fears that the parking attendants may come and clamp his car yet he is not responsible.

“Sasa saa hii system iko chini alafu wakuje wanifungie gari, ndio waniitishe pesa mingi” he laments.

Another driver by the name James says he too noticed the system failure. His fear however was that parking attendants may use it as an excuse to now clamp vehicles.

Diana Nyaboke, another driver, says she opts to use the Paybill number to pay for her parking due to the unpredictability of the USSD code.

" I always prefer using the Paybill 3232323, account number, the number plate to pay for my parking as opposed to the code," she notes.

During a phone call interview with the County Executive for Finance, Stephen Iribe confirms that there is a problem with the parking system at the moment.

“It is a service provider issue but we have sent them an email and we have also reached out to the support manager. We are expecting feedback from them. At the moment we have deployed some parking attendants with PDQs all around the city and its environs to prompt the payments for those paying for their parking,” he says.

Nakuru drivers stranded as parking USSD code fails

Author Spotlight

Bret Sanya